


Just Because Everything Changes

by booksteaandrainydays



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-03 22:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13350384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksteaandrainydays/pseuds/booksteaandrainydays
Summary: What happens after Jughead slides on the sexy black leather jacket of a Serpent, and how does Betty feel about it? What's happening with Archie and his Dad? AU from the beginning of Season 2.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Riverdale.

She wasn’t exactly sure when it had happened, her pulling away from her friendship with Archie. Or rather, she knew _when_ it happened and _why_. What she didn’t know was why no one had really noticed it except for her. Of course, everyone saw the aftermath of the back to school formal. That was public and brutal and left two broken hearts in its wake.

After everything happened with Miss Grundy, Betty began to close herself off from Archie. “She believed in me when no one else did!” His words echoed in her ears for days following that outburst.

“You had _me_!” she wanted to shout at him. But she didn’t. Because of course, everyone knew that Betty Cooper always put Archie Andrews’ feelings before her own. Sometimes she thought maybe she should have said it out loud. Would he have been surprised at her use of the past tense? She certainly liked to think he would have. She also liked to imagine he would have apologized and wrapped her in one of his amazingly warm, affectionate Archie hugs.

But that had only been a fantasy, and Betty pulled herself away from Archie in a way he should have noticed. He didn’t. Sure, she was still friendly with him, and anyone outside the two would hardly have noticed a difference.

Betty noticed, if only subconsciously at first.

There were no friendly touches between the two of them anymore. No hugs. No arm slung across the back of their favorite booth at Pop’s. No teasing punches after crappy jokes, and definitely no casual hand-holding while walking home and talking. In fact, without even realizing it, Betty had shied away from being in too close proximity to Archie. Instead of sitting on the same bench as him at the Chock’Lit Shoppe, she now sat across the table from him, and in the school cafeteria she always put at least a seat in between them.

It was a defense mechanism, sure, but Betty thought she was doing okay.

And then, out of the blue, Jughead Jones happened to her. They had their moment and afterwards, everything in her life changed again.

Finally, someone in her life who cared enough to _be_ there as her whole family fell apart. As the news broke of Polly being pregnant with Jason Blossom’s baby ( _babies_ , as they would later discover) and who not only accepted her dark side, but _understood_ it. And she could spend time around Archie again without her heart aching so bad it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Of course, there were issues, but what relationship didn’t have them?

Betty and Jughead were far from perfect, despite his rant about her being the perfect girl next door at the birthday party he didn’t want, but they worked. And he _loved_ her. He’d told her so, and she felt so happy she thought she might burst. That was that, and she knew then that she would be losing it to Jughead Jones.

Then, only minutes later, a knock at the door of FP’s trailer altered the course of what should have been a perfect evening. Even as she watched Jughead slide that black leather jacket emblazoned with a green serpent across the back, she could feel something like barbed wire creep itself around her heart in protection.

Honestly, she knew it was hypocritical of her, especially after the article she wrote defending the Serpents. She didn’t _want_ Jughead to follow this path, but she knew he probably wouldn’t listen to anything she said if his mind was already made up. The Serpent who had handed him the jacket had promised a family, and God knew how Jughead wanted a family. As an added bonus, his new school was on the Southside, much closer to the Serpents.

He looked fabulously sexy in leather, but Betty knew she would have to be careful with her heart once again.

All she wanted to do was call Archie and beg him to talk some sense into Jughead, or even just talk to her about everything. Somehow, he had always made her thoughts make sense, even when they didn’t to her. She longed to call him and be surrounded with the comforting presence of the boy (man now?) who had been her best friend since she was four. She didn’t do that, though, if only because she saw the look Veronica had given him before Betty and Jug split off from their group of four to be alone. Ronnie probably wouldn’t appreciate any interruptions right about now, and she had a nagging feeling, neither would Archie.

She did the only other thing she could think of.

She closed the door she had been peering through to watch Jughead with the Serpents. She put her clothing back on properly and gathered any other of her belongings, and she unlocked her phone and pulled up the one contact that she knew would always have her back no matter what. Sitting on FP’s couch, Betty waited while the phone rang and rang until the person on the other line answered.

“It’s me,” she said. “I’m with Juggy at FP’s. Can you please come get me?”

After getting an affirmative answer, she waited on the couch for Jughead to come inside. He finally did ten minutes later, still wearing the jacket he had been given on the porch. “Betty…” he started, making no move to come any closer to her than where he was leaning against the door.

But she didn’t let him finish. “It’s okay, Juggy.” Her phone beeped to let her know that her ride was waiting for her. She stood from her sitting position and walked to where Jug still stood motionless, taking his hand and pulling him to her. Instantly, his arms wrapped themselves around her waist and she lay her head on his chest.

“I love you,” he murmured against her hair. Betty felt her eyes well up as she nodded her head. Then she stepped back out of the warmth of his arms.

“I just need some time.” She could see the tightening of hurt around his eyes at her statement, but he let her walk around him and open the door. He followed her down the steps, startling at the sight of a familiar vehicle parked in the front.

“Betty,” he pleaded, “I need you to see this from my perspective. Those guys are giving me a family. I need that more than anything right now, with my dad locked up and my mom not really wanting me.” His eyes begged her to understand, which she did. But how could he not think about what his new “family” was going to cost?

This time Betty shook her head in disbelief. “I thought we were your family, Jug.” She turned to the passenger door of the car and opened it, stepping one foot inside, but still staring her boyfriend in the eyes. “Couldn’t you see that?” Then she sat fully in the car and closed the door. They waited a moment for Jughead to finally stop staring at them before he finally turned to go back inside the trailer.

“Are you okay, Betty?”

She blinked away tears and shook her head once. “Please just drive, Kevin.”

In the dim porch light before the door to the trailer shut tight behind him, Betty could have sworn the green snake on the back of Jughead’s jacket smirked at her.


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn’t seem to sit still, so he paced the blue marble tile about a hundred times. Back and forth, back and forth. He crinkled his nose in disgust. Archie had never realized how much he hated the overly sanitized smell of a hospital, and he shivered from the cold feel in the air. Honestly, he wanted nothing more than to go home and take a long hot shower. The doctor had yet to return with any news of his father, however, so he stayed.

Realization hit Archie for the first time since he had set foot in the ambulance. His father, the man who stayed with him after his mom moved out and who did and gave everything for him, was laying on an operating table _right now_ surrounded by doctors and nurses who were fighting to save his life. His dad could _die_. His chest got tight and suddenly he couldn’t breathe. Archie sat in the uncomfortable brown chair in the waiting room and dug his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and hardly glanced at it as he dialed a number that was almost as familiar to him as breathing and waited for the line to pick up.

“Archie?” Betty answered, her voice sounding thick.

And he could breathe again. “ _Betty._ ” he choked out desperately. “I need you here. I’m at the hospital. My dad, he…” But he couldn’t finish his sentence.

There was silence for a moment, and he worried Betty would hang up on him. He should know better by now than to doubt her. “I’m on my way.” And she hung up the phone.

He barely waited fifteen minutes for Betty to come bursting through the doors to the waiting room. “Archie!” she called. He glanced up at her, blinking in some shock, because while she was always beautiful, he didn’t think he’d seen a sweatpants and oversized t-shirt clad Betty since they were thirteen and she had finally been allowed to start wearing makeup like her sister, Polly. After that, she was always impeccably dressed, her makeup perfect but still light enough to only enhance her natural beauty. So seeing her like this, just the way they used to be, brought back great memories of their childhood together.

Naturally, he assumed the clothes she wore must belong to Jughead, and so looked past her to spot his other best friend, blinking again when he realized there was no Jug to be found. Betty reached him then, stopping hardly a foot away from him and reaching to touch his arm through his jacket. She didn’t say anything at first, choosing instead to stare at him in some form of horror.

“Archie, oh my God. What _happened_?” He noticed her eyes were very wide and hadn’t strayed too much from his front the whole time she’d been standing in front of him. Looking down at himself, he saw why.

Nearly every inch of him from torso to knee cap was covered in blood. He continued to stare at himself until the ground looked like it was spinning, and he felt Betty wrap her arm around his waist. Shit, the ground wasn’t moving, he was _shaking_ , and Betty was keeping him from collapsing. When his eyes finally moved from his blood stained clothing, he saw she was guiding him to the bathroom. She flicked the light on and stood him in front of the sink, turning the tap to hot and putting his hands under the spray.

Probably, the water was hotter than he was used to, but Archie didn’t notice. He was too busy watching the white porcelain sink turn pink with the blood he hadn’t seen coating his hands. Betty stuck her hand under the soap dispenser, pumping a few times to release a mound of the foamy soap the hospital used, and brought it down to meet the water where his hands waited, taking them one at a time between her much smaller ones and gently rubbing to scour him clean of blood. It was funny, he had never noticed before how small Betty really was. Tall, yes, but still so delicate he was afraid of how easily he might break her. Betty was a tough girl, he knew that because she would  _have_ to be with all the craziness her family had gone through the last few months. Not only her family though, but with Cheryl Blossom trying to terrorize her, then the ordeal with someone painting the words “Serpent Slut” onto her locker in  _pigs blood._

And now, here she stood calmly cleaning his father’s blood off his hands.

After a few more minutes, she declared his hands clean. She took him by the shoulders and lightly pushed him to sit down on the closed toilet seat lid. “Archie, can you take your jacket off for me?” she asked quietly. He numbly slid the jacket off himself, wincing only slightly when it stuck a little to his t-shirt. Betty held her hand out to take it from him, pausing for a moment to cup his cheek in her soft palm and rub across his cheekbone with her thumb, before taking the jacket and walking back to the sink. She ran cold water instead of hot this time and immediately stuck it in the sink, trying her best to rinse at least some of the red out of the golden sleeves. It was a little more difficult to see on the dark blue of the torso, but Archie knew when it dried, the blue would turn a muddy shade of brown that would be hell to wash out.

Betty echoed his thoughts exactly by saying, “Well, at least it hasn’t dried yet, it may still stand a chance of coming through unscathed.” She continued with, “When we get home I’ll rub some stain remover and some diluted ammonia over it and toss it in the washing machine and it should be good as new. I just wish we had some better soap than this.”

For the first time, Archie spoke. “Betty, how exactly are you such a pro at removing bloodstains?”

She turned to him with wide eyes and pink cheeks. “I  _am_ a girl, Arch.” He stared at her uncomprehendingly until the implication made it through his distracted brain.

“ _Oh._ ” He cast his eyes down, blushing a little himself. He and Betty had been best friends for fourteen years. For goodness’ sake, they’d gone through puberty around the same time, but they’d never actually talked about the fact that Betty had her  _period._  It was kind of an odd thing to linger on, but he supposed it was better than concentrating on his dad in the middle of a surgery and Archie not being allowed to see him until he got out of ICU.

Betty finished soaping up his jacket and rinsed it, wringing it out until she got as much of the water out of it she could without a dryer. She gave it back to him, waiting until he pulled it back on and then snapping all the buttons for him. She adjusted his collar and asked, “Well, you ready to get back out there?”

He nodded slightly, reaching down to entwine his fingers with hers, a little surprised when she let him. He wasn’t as oblivious as everyone seemed to think he was, he had _definitely_ noticed when Betty put an end to any touching between them and he had to admit he didn’t like it very much. Pulling him along, Betty brought him to a cushioned bench long enough they could sit side-by-side and curled her feet up underneath her as she turned to face him.

“I understand if you aren’t quite ready yet,” she started, “but could you tell me what happened to your dad, Arch?”

Archie sat quietly for a moment, staring at Betty’s hand where it rested on his lap, still clasped tightly in his. In a quiet voice, he began telling her everything, starting off slowly, haltingly, until he was speaking in a rush, almost as if he just _had_ to get out the whole story. When he began his retelling of holding his father on the floor at Pop’s, he choked and had to stop, lowering his head so she wouldn’t see the tears welling up in his eyes. Suddenly, there were gentle fingers on his chin, tipping his head up to look at her. “You can stop, Archie. I know it’s hard.” He shook his head as tears finally started to spill over onto his cheeks. “ _Oh, Archie,_ ” Betty whispered. She took her hand out of his, moving it to the back of his head, guiding it down to rest on her shoulder, while her other arm wrapped around him in a tight hug.

They sat like that for what felt like hours, until Archie was all sobbed out and lightly dozing into Betty’s neck as she stroked his hair. A _crash_ jolted him awake and he sat up, peering at the direction of the noise, seeing one of the receptionists kneeling down to pick up the remains of an empty white coffee cup. He felt Betty’s arm drop to sit lightly around his lower back. He brought his hands up to scrub his face in exhaustion before letting them fall back to his lap. A door a few feet away from them opened up and a tired looking doctor came through, eyes searching until they landed on Archie, who grabbed Betty’s hand again before bringing the both of them to their feet to greet the doctor. “Mr. Andrews?” When Archie nodded, the doctor introduced himself. “I’m Dr. Matthews. We just got your dad out of surgery.”

“How is he?” Archie asked anxiously.

The doctor sighed a little before giving a small smile. “It was touch-and-go for a while. The bullet missed all his major organs, but there was obviously some deep internal bleeding that took a while for us to stop. We gave him a few blood transfusions and he should be just fine.” Archie whipped his head around to smile at Betty with hopeful eyes, grinning wider when she smiled back. Dr. Matthews took a deep breath, “But it might be a few days before he wakes up. An injury like that takes its toll on the body _and_ mind. We do expect a full recovery, but he needs to heal on his own time.”

Archie’s smile had dropped, a frown creasing his eyebrows. “Well. When can I see him?” Betty’s hand tightened around his in a show of silent support.

Dr. Matthews clapped Archie on the shoulder. “I’d say give it about five hours. That gives you some time to shower and eat something. Maybe take a nap-you’ve been here about four hours.” With that the doctor turned and went back through the door. Archie sat back down on the bench, one elbow propped on his knee, and his hand holding his forehead as he nearly sagged in relief.

He turned again to smile at Betty. “He’s gonna be okay, Bett.”

She smiled back at him, ruffling his hair. Then she frowned, squinting her eyes a little in confusion. “By the way, Arch,” she questioned, “where is Veronica? I thought that as your girlfriend she would be here for something as important as this.”

Archie felt his stomach drop as he realized he had unintentionally omitted one detail of his story-where he had spent the night. Then he wondered to himself, why _hadn’t_ he called Veronica? It would have made sense. Truthfully, he didn’t know. All he knew was that in his moment of need, the only person he had wanted to see was Betty. Of course, he couldn’t outright admit that to her knowing that he had pretty much stomped on her feelings not long before.

So instead, he told her, “Veronica isn’t my best friend, Betty.” Betty gave him a sad smile and cupped his cheek again. She brought their foreheads together and closed her eyes, resting gently there for a moment before pulling back and standing up. She held her hand out to him waiting patiently for him to join her.

“Let’s get you back home, Archie. I’ll make you lunch while you’re in the shower.”

They walked out the hospital doors together, quickly finding the truck Archie had brought over from where his dad had parked it at Pop’s. Betty asked him for the keys, and for the first time since they’d gotten their licenses Archie didn’t object to the thought of Betty driving him. He was too tired to argue, and his thoughts kept wandering between guilt over not calling Veronica the “morning after” and questioning why he’d needed Betty there with him in the hospital so urgently that his girlfriend never even crossed his mind. He didn’t know.

It scared the shit out of him.


	3. Chapter 3

Vegas sat at Betty’s feet, his eyes following her every move as she transferred slices of bacon from the package to the sizzling hot pan on the stove. Finally, she took pity on the poor boy and dropped a piece from the plate of already cooked bacon she had cooling on the counter. “Go lay down, boy,” she told him and, obediently, the dog trotted off to his favorite spot on the living room couch. Faintly, Betty could hear the water in the bathroom shut off as Archie finished his shower. She took the last piece of bacon from the pan, letting the grease drip off it for a moment before adding it to her pile and turning off the stove. She took another plate from the cupboard and sat it on the kitchen island, taking two pieces of bread from the bag and popping them in the toaster. She waited a minute for the bread to be done, pulling it out when it was just the barest bit brown, just the way Archie liked it. Quickly, she assembled the rest of his BLT sandwich, adding a slice of cheese in the middle (which was absolutely _disgusting_ in her opinion) because it was Archie’s favorite.

She heard him coming down the hallway as she cut the sandwich in half. Betty slid the plate to his spot at the counter just as he walked into the kitchen. His hair was still wet and he looked exhausted, but at least he was dressed in something clean now. Instead of heading for the waiting sandwich, Archie bee-lined straight for Betty, pulling her into him for a tight hug. “Thank you for being here, Betts,” he said into her hair. “You have no idea how much I appreciate it.” Betty relaxed into the hug, knowing she needed it just as much as he did.

“You know I’ll always be here Arch.” She pulled back from him, smiling a little. “How about you sit down and eat something and then maybe take a nap, okay?” Cupping his cheek, Betty gently ran her thumb underneath his eye. “You look ready to drop.” Archie made his way to his chair, sitting heavily into it, rubbing both eyes with his palms.

He didn’t look up as he responded. “Well I didn’t exactly _sleep_ last night, and then just everything this morning…” He trailed off, not seeing how Betty stiffened where she was, peering into the refrigerator to find her friend something to drink. ‘ _Didn’t exactly sleep,’_ he’d said. So he and Veronica had… Quickly, Betty snatched a can of soda out of the door of the fridge and opened it, putting it next to Archie’s plate. Suddenly, his head shot up and he stared at Betty in shock, as if he’d finally realized what he’d said. “Betty, I didn’t mean-.”

She cut him off. “It’s okay,” she assured him. “Ronnie is your girlfriend, Arch. It’s not all that surprising that you’d have sex with her.” He looked like he wanted to say something, so she kept talking. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d really like to take a shower. I had a long night, myself.” She paused a moment. “Um, can I borrow some clothes? I need to put these,” Betty tugged at the sweatpants she wore, “in the washer so I can get them back to Kevin.”

The surprise on Archie’s face at Kevin’s name brought Betty up short. She’d forgotten she hadn’t told him about Jughead in all the worry over Fred. “Kevin? Why are you wearing Kevin’s clothes?” Archie questioned her. “I thought you and Jughead had a date last night?”

Shaking her head, Betty felt the first of the tears she’d been holding back all day begin to well up again. “Please, Archie. I promise I’ll tell you everything, but I really want a shower.” She was really trying to not think about Jug right now, but she could feel herself starting to unravel as she clenched her fists, ignoring the bite of her fingernails into her palms. The pain cleared her head momentarily and she looked up, meeting Archie’s steady gaze. He seemed to study her face for a minute before he blew out a deep breath and ran a hand through his mop of auburn hair.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll go find you something that should fit.” With that, he trudged his way upstairs to his bedroom.

Betty sighed. She looked around at the kitchen, deciding the small mess she’d made cooking Archie some lunch could wait until after she’d washed her hair. The one thing that _couldn’t_ wait was the gold and blue letterman’s jacket she’d promised to wash. She walked into the Andrews’ small laundry room where Archie had already deposited his bloodstained clothing. Crouching down, she opened the cabinet next to the washing machine in search of stain remover and…Aha! A bottle of ammonia which looked as if it had already been diluted. Thank goodness Fred Andrews was a well prepared man, or Archie would have been down a pair of jeans and probably would have had to buy a new jacket.

In next to no time, she had the washer running, and was getting ready to step into the shower. The first spray of hot water did nothing to chase away the lingering chill she’d had all day, so she turned the water up even higher, absently noting it was warmer than she normally preferred as she watched her skin turn pink through the steam. A knock on the door announced Archie’s return, and she invited him into the bathroom. “I grabbed you a towel, too,” he informed her. “I’m gonna take Vegas outside for a few minutes and I’ll be upstairs when you’re done so we can talk.” She heard the bathroom door close before she could respond.

Betty sank to the floor of the shower, letting the hot water beat on her back as she crossed her arms over her knees and lay her head on them. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought of Veronica and Archie together, even though she knew it made her a hypocrite. After all, hadn’t she and Jughead been about to sleep together before they’d been interrupted? This time when the tears came, she let them fall. No one would be able to tell in the relative privacy of the shower, anyways. She cried for the others, at first. Jughead, for the life he’d never wanted but still managed to be roped into anyways. Veronica, because her dad was getting out of jail and Betty knew Ronnie was terrified to become the mean girl she’d been before moving to Riverdale. She cried for Archie, who almost lost his dad today. She even cried for Kevin, who’d had to watch Joaquin walk out of his life in order to remain a free man.

Finally, though, Betty cried for herself about the unfairness of it all. Jughead had said he loved her, but it looked like he might be choosing a life with the Serpents over her. She was still in love with Archie, she knew, which made her feel worse, because she’d been _happy_ with Jug, and what’s more, Veronica was her friend. What kind of friend did that make Betty? Not to mention how she could look any of them in the eye knowing she felt the way she did.

Betty lifted her face to the spray of the water, all cried out. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there, but she was sure it had been long enough. So she stood, picking up all her pieces as she went and put them back together as she slowly, methodically washed her hair. Finishing that, she picked up the red bottle of body wash from the corner shelf built into the shower wall and squirted some of the blue liquid into her cupped palm and quickly lathered up her body and rinsed. She couldn’t seem to find it in her to care that she was going to smell like a man for the rest of the day because the scent was pure Archie, and that was comforting in its own way.

She dried herself and dressed in the clothes Archie had laid out for her to wear, having to roll the waistband of the sweatpants down a couple of times before they better fit her and laughing at his choice of t-shirt from a concert they’d seen together two years ago. She was certain the shirt no longer fit him with all the muscle he’d packed on in the last year, but she was touched he’d kept it anyways.

Deciding to let her hair air-dry rather than keep it twisted in a towel, she padded barefoot back into the kitchen to finish her clean-up. That should delay her inevitable conversation with Archie, she was thinking, when she was brought up short by the view of a perfectly clean counter. The dishes were all piled in the sink, but Archie had put away all the leftover food and wiped down the countertops with a wash cloth. _Damn._ He knew her too well. With nothing else to help her stall, Betty walked up the stairs where she knew Arch was waiting for her.

Sure enough, he sat on his bed, legs folded, watching her walk though his doorway. Vegas lay on the floor in front of the bed, raising his head a little as she passed him to nudge against her leg. Betty absently reached down to give him a light scratch behind the ear, doing her best to ignore the way Archie’s gaze took in her eyes, which she was sure were red and puffy, and the way he looked at her still damp, un-brushed hair. “Hand me that comb,” he told her, pointing to his desk.

She did as he asked, sitting with her back to him when he patted the spot in front of him on the bed. Carefully, Archie started to run the comb through her hair, just like she’d taught him years ago when they were still allowed to have sleepovers. Betty could feel her tensed shoulders begin to relax with each stroke he made through her slightly tangled tresses. It was so familiar to her that, when he finally put the comb down, she immediately slid the hairband from her wrist to hand it over her shoulder to him.

He took it without any hesitation and slowly but skillfully took her hair in his hands again to braid it. Betty barely had time to register with surprise he still remembered how to braid her hair before he was talking. “Okay, Betts. Tell me what’s going on.” The anxiety strained her shoulders again, but she knew it wasn’t fair to keep him in the dark.

“Jughead is going to join the Serpents.” At her words, Archie’s nimble fingers stilled at the end of the plait he was finishing, before he wrapped the hairband around it to tie it off. He took his hands away from her and she scooted around to face him.

“ _What?_ ”

Betty let the words fall out of her in a rush, and even though he looked like he wanted to say something, to his credit, Archie didn’t interrupt once. She cried again as she spoke, not as much as when she sat alone in the shower, but she barely felt it as Archie moved them into another familiar position. Now, both of them lay on their sides facing each other with only their foreheads touching, just like when they were young kids telling secrets they didn’t want their parents to hear. As she finished her story, Archie lifted his hand to brush the tears off her face. Then he lifted himself lightly to slide his arm underneath Betty to pull her closer to him, resting her face in the junction of his shoulder and neck.

Finding herself now completely drained, Betty wrapped her arm around Archie’s waist, curling up tighter to his side. She felt something brush against the top of her head as his other arm came up to envelope her completely. Archie whispered, “Don’t worry, Betty. Jughead is going to be fine. You and I will make sure of that.”

And with the exhaustion of the last two days pulling at her, Betty fell asleep in the arms of her best friend, the same boy she’d been in love with as long as she could remember. She’d never felt more safe.

*

*

*

*

For the first time in a while, Betty slept dreamlessly. There were no nightmares to wake her, and the coldness she’d sure seeped into her bones permanently was gone. Truth be told, she felt a little _too_ warm, though she wasn’t quite sure why. Her brain wasn’t quite awake yet, but she was comfortable. Comfortable enough that she tried to roll over and go back to sleep. However, when she tried to move, the arms that had been loosely around her torso tightened and pulled her back into a hard chest.

Her eyes popped open. Well, she was awake now, and the events of the day caught up with her. Carefully, Betty maneuvered herself around so she was facing Archie. He looked so peaceful, even if the fatigue was still evident in the dark circles under his closed eyes. His mouth was slightly open, his breath lightly ruffling the shorter hairs on her forehead that had fallen out of the braid in her sleep. Deciding to let him rest longer, Betty just lay her head back on his chest and closed her eyes.

*

*

*

*

She had only been half-dozing for a minute or two when she heard him.

“ _What the fuck is this?”_

Her whole body tensed as she raised her head from where it touched Archie, feeling him stir, instantly as awake as she was. Their eyes met for just a moment before they both looked to the door they’d left open where Jughead stood in his new black leather jacket, a fury in his eyes that Betty had never before seen directed her way, not even after his disastrous birthday party.

“Jug-,” she started.

“Don’t even try, Betty,” he spat at her. “You’re exactly where you’ve always wanted to be. Don’t bother making excuses.” He turned to tromp angrily back to the first floor of the house.

He didn’t look back.


End file.
